Credit: Far Out / Carlos Rodríguez / Andes
Mon 31 August 2026 1:00, UK
Metallica are one of the biggest names in heavy metal. Despite making music for decades now, they continue to sell out arenas everywhere they go.
How do you even get to the point where you’re persistently playing to massive crowds in every single corner of the globe? Well, James Hetfield has always been pretty open about his influences, as he is happy to talk about the different bands whose music made him realise not only that he wanted to make music but also what kind of music he wanted to make.
One of his first inspirations was Black Sabbath, as is the case for the majority of bands that dabble within the world of heavy metal. The combination of all the members of Black Sabbath and the doom-laden and distortion-heavy music they were able to put out was such a massive bang within the artistic world that it resulted in a brand-new branch of rock. Along this branch, you basically have every other heavy metal band that has ever so much as hummed a tune.
“Sabbath was the band that put heavy in my head,” said Hetfield. “That first Sabbath album I would sneak out of my brother’s record collection and play on the forbidden record player. I wasn’t supposed to touch any of that stuff, but I did, and the first Sabbath album got in my head. That initial song, ‘Black Sabbath’, was the one when you’d put your headphones on and sit in the dark and get scared to death. Then the Devil’s riff comes in, and it got you!”
Of course, Metallica weren’t just a carbon copy of Black Sabbath; they went on to have their own identity. You could label them as thrash metal, which would certainly apply to a lot of their earlier records; however, the band upset fans (and gained many others) by later branching out and writing songs that were a bit softer and had a much clearer melody attached.
As mentioned above, there were a lot of fans who became frustrated with this pivot, given that they liked Metallica as a thrash metal band and didn’t want to see them change their stripes. But when you understand more of the bands who have influenced James Hetfield, this slight change in creative direction makes perfect sense. He liked the sense of dread that Sabbath instilled, sure, but there were other bands who wrote catchy choruses, interesting hooks and recognisable riffs that also rubbed off on him.
One of these bands was Thin Lizzy. There’s a lot to like about Thin Lizzy, but one of the musical elements that they championed so well was melody. Whether it was in the riffs that opened up songs or the choruses that popped up throughout various tracks, they could put together music that would stay with the listener for hours, days, weeks and years. One of those listeners was Hetfield, who had one song in particular move him.
Further reading: From The Vault
“There are so many great Thin Lizzy songs, they’re all just amazing pieces of songwriting, and they’ve all got their moods and their place,” he said. “My walkout music would be ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’, there’s no doubt about it. That song makes me smile, and it gets me pumped up. There’s a feeling of ‘family’ or a gathering – a gang – and the harmony solos are so catchy and memorable.”
The song was always able to put Hetfield in a great mood, and so whether its impact was direct or indirect, tracks like this will certainly have had an impact on the sound that Metallica fans now adore.
